Familys Close Call As Lorry Rear-Ends Broken-Down Car

A family whose car broke down on a motorway were lucky to escape unharmed after their vehicle was rear-ended by a careless lorry driver a minute after they had stepped out of the car.

The motorist surnamed Hu and his wife were heading home with their four-year-old daughter in the back seat when their white Ford burst a tyre.

Footage from the motorway in the city of Hangzhou, capital of China’s eastern Zhejiang Province, shows their broken-down car parked on the hard shoulder while Hu and his family stand just off the road nearby.

Pictures Credit: AsiaWire

Hu said his wife was reluctant to leave the car, but he woke his sleeping daughter and demanded that they leave the motorway and climb over the crash barriers to safety – and his insistence saved all their lives.

Traffic camera footage shows the red lorry, driven by a man surnamed Li, ploughing into the back of the smaller white car moments later, pushing it some 65 feet away.

The small figure of Hu can be seen jumping away in shock at the crash, which he said happened just one minute after they had left the car.

Local authorities said lorry driver Li crashed during a “lapse in concentration”.

He was not seriously injured, but the Hu family car was all but written off during the rear-end collision.

Hu said: “If it weren’t for my insistence, our family would’ve been gone!”

He recalled seeing a sign on the motorway reading: “In case of an accident: pull over, leave the vehicle, call the police.”